Our digital experiences, like our brains, are smooth and frictionless.
Sentences? Auto-completed. Search results? Summarized. Playlists? Autogenerated. Everything online is so easy, and we all know the deal: algorithms trap us in echo chambers; we’re shaped by what drives most engagement, attention, attention, attention, etc. etc. etc. Our obsession with developing new tech to address issues we don’t have never ceases to amaze me: AI bird feeders, smart lightbulbs; Uber even “reinvented” the bus.
An old voice (Southern, I imagine) haunts me constantly:
“Things were better back in my day.”
… but were they really? I was born too late to have experienced the magic of the dot com boom or the Y2K crash. I missed having to manually input URLs or physically send mail. I do wonder what an ad-free, cookie-free internet looked like. Embarrassing, I know!
What would it be like to live with analog versions of digital technology?
Could abstaining from technology owned by companies answering to a flickering stock price help regulate my nervous system? Reinstate my overall sense of trust? Make me a more mindful consumer? Or is my interest in an AI-free life just fake nostalgia for a time I was never actually a part of? Could I normalize a neo-luddite lifestyle for myself? I’ve read enough thought pieces about dumb phones.
It’s time I gave one a go.
Every month, I’ll renounce a piece of tech we live by.
But this isn’t a complete detox: I want to read my Instagram feed like a printed newspaper. I want to bike with a walkman. I want to quit Google for a library card.
Picture veganism for tech: Instead of animal products, I’m giving up digital conveniences. The same ethical, functional, and performative appeals apply: sustainability in place of animal rights, attention spans in place of gut health, and aesthetics in place of, well, aesthetics. Wired earphones are a look. You can’t tell me otherwise.
I hope to emulate the enthusiasm (for neo-luddism) that college-dropout start-up founders posting on LinkedIn have for AI. Of course, my posts will mirror their posting conventions: clickbait ledes followed by personal musings. You’ll get a field report delivered in the first week of each month, and, in between, notes on internet counterculture and all things low-tech.
I’m swearing a vow of digital chastity so you don’t have to. The least you can do is subscribe!